A Check of Integrity: Would Your Company Pass?

A Check of Integrity: Would Your Company Pass?

At first glance, it appears difficult to evaluate an individual’s integrity. After all, how exactly do we gauge it? I was looking for the measurement as I thought back to my time working as an internal auditor for the federal government. Then a person sent us an email saying that she owed us an apology because she hadn’t written her newsletter or posted helpful content in a long time. However, it’s okay because she had been working on her business behind the scenes and wanted us to invest in her new programs.

That’s when I realized that integrity can be measured by asking and responding to the straightforward question, “Did I/they do what I/they said I/they would?” The measurement is that. That’s how easy it is. Not a number, but evidence that we kept our promises and acknowledged our mistakes when they occurred (which will happen for any number of reasons). As humans, we make mistakes. That’s fine as long as we acknowledge it and try to fix it, and our clients and customers will continue to have faith in us.

The following are some recent instances in which I have witnessed evidence of dishonesty and no attempt to rectify or admit fault: • Affiliate payments are common in the world of online businesses. When a business owner asks for help sharing or promoting something, they either don’t pay, delay payments for an absurd amount of time, or claim to have “spent it” while promoting their most recent vacation on social media. • Consistency— simply failing to perform as promised, as the business owner demonstrated above. Everything would have been fine if she had sent a straightforward email announcing that she would be returning soon after taking a brief sabbatical. • Customer service — I really get this one. Business owners who put in a lot of effort to acquire new customers only to lose them because they fail to provide “X” or take care of them. I’d like to scream, “Seriously?!?” After all, they’re hurting their credibility and reputation.

• The Half-Assed Attempt—sadly, I’m seeing this one more and more, but even though it could be combined with “Client Service” above, I feel compelled to bring it up. To “get by,” doing as little as possible rather than doing a good job. This is caused by either not asking questions to clarify things, making assumptions, or simply doing a “just barely satisfactory” job of something (think “C-/D” in grade) so that one can move on to the next thing. Augh! My suggestion is: • See if there are any areas of your business that are not upholding your standards and values. This frequently takes place while we are completely unaware of it. An example of this would be when I found out that a nurturing sequence wasn’t tied to a product. As a result, I thought my customers were getting great “add-on” information for what they paid for, but they were getting nothing. I only found out after asking a customer how they liked the information.

• Find out how your customers are doing. Keep this anonymous to make sure you only get the truthful information you need, not necessarily what you want to hear. The responses will be beneficial to your business, not your ego, which is more important. • If you believe that someone you do business with lacks integrity, address it. Assume that they are unaware of it and politely inquire or inform them. You can catch more flies with honey than vinegar, according to a proverb, and they might not even be aware of what’s going on. Based on their response, make a decision about future interactions.